October 10 Exists, January 19 Shouldn't Have
by Koplak from the Equator
Summary: Kushina had not just gave birth to Minato's splitting image, but hers too. But fate separated them with the help of the beast. Now the truth remains silent. One-shot. Thanks to Alda MN!


**I first want to thank Alda MN and her review on my other Minato-Naruto story. It was what inspired me. Without it, maybe I wouldn't be making this story and would never think again. She was right, you know. And I put some other details to reinforce the theory. Yayyeah!**

* * *

His eyes couldn't focus on the stockpile of documents. His hands had to be repeatedly reminded to do their jobs right while his mind wandered. His rib cage was slightly suffering from the harsh heartbeat. Namikaze Minato aka Yondaime Hokage was restless.

"Sensei, you should relax a bit." Kakashi moaned. He was there for the lack of a better activity.

"Well, I would if my wife didn't go to the hospital this morning! She's about to give birth!!!" Minato explained, getting slightly frantic at the end of his sentence.

Kakashi's eyes expanded. "She is? Is it a boy or a girl?"

"The doctor said it's going to be a boy, but who knows."

"Have you decided for a name, Sensei?"

"I have one in mind, but I'll talk with Kushina later. And why do I have this feeling that we're gonna fight the name over?" Minato scratched his head. Kakashi chuckled and Minato followed soon enough. Unfortunately, they didn't get to laugh for long as Minato's secretary barged in.

"Hokage-sama!" she called loudly followed by panting.

"Whoa, take a breath, Watari-san. What's the rush?" Minato queried.

"Your wife, sir! She has given birth!!"

The mental siren of Minato's conscience yowled in the volume of one hundred. He stood upright and whooshed faster than speed of light to Konoha hospital. The last thing he shouted was, "Later, Kakashi!!!" but that was even barely audible.

Watari and Kakashi sweat-dropped. Kakashi sighed and shook his head, "Yellow Flash indeed."

**|O|**

The Namikaze family was growing. It took one year and a half plus one hour and fifteen minutes for it to grow. One and a half year from wedding to pregnancy; one hour and fifteen minutes for giving birth to twins. Yes, twins! Cheers for Kushina!

Obviously, it was a completely exhausting work for giving birth twins, but Kushina was very strong and she still could keep conscience on after giving birth. Her will to see her first babies gave her strength to maintain her eyes open. She giggled when she first saw the twins. The thing was…they didn't look like twins at all. They were very dissimilar.

"Are you sure both of them are our kids?" Minato asked cautiously when Kushina showed him his children.

"Psh, Minato! That's not very nice of you as a father. Of course these two are our kids! Just look! This one looks like you and this one looks like me." Kushina nuzzled red-headed son of hers. "So…since we have two kids already, who names which?"

"I want to give the red-head name. You can name the one that looks like me." Minato answered and picked up the red-head infant.

"OK. I'm going to name this little sweetheart Naruto, just like Jiraiya-san's character in his book. How about you, honey?"

"Hey! I was gonna name this one Naruto. Ugh, I guess I have to change my mind then…" Minato thought for a few minutes. It nearly bore Kushina out before Minato's expression brightened up. "I got it! I'm going to name this one Gaara."

Kushina frowned slightly and her eyebrow cocked, "I never knew you have taste for gothic names. That's a surprise…" Kushina remarked.

Minato shrugged, "It just popped into my mind." He grinned widely, Kushina smiled at him. The nurse asked them to put their babies into the crib so that the mother can have a rest. Minato nodded and turned to Kushina one last time. "I had to go back to work as well. I'll see you later, darling." He kissed her and prepared to go back to his office.

"Have a nice day!" Kushina waved. Unseen to her, Minato was crying in frustration. His mind was crying, _Why a nice day, Kushina? Why can't you say, "Have no work, honey!" or something like that?!_ Ah, Minato, things will change…

**|O|**

Much to Minato's relief, he didn't have to resume his paper work. The people in the office celebrated his joy with a small party. He told everybody how his twin boys didn't look like twins at all and he named the one like the love of his life. Still, no matter how merry the party was, ninja life was running like a waterfall. It soon turned to normal again, much to Minato's dismay. Oh, how he hated the paperwork. And Kakashi was here to company him no longer. Now the world was laughing at him.

One thing that disappointed Minato was his children's godfather, who was also his former sensei, was not present. He was not even spotted around the village. He was aware that his former sensei had a profession of being an erotic book author, but that didn't mean that he could just leave without keeping in touch with what was happened to his home village.

The blonde sighed and swung his office chair around to face the sky. Wondering where Jiraiya could be as of this second.

_Two hours later, in the hospital…_

The door knocked. Kushina, who could only sleep for one hour ten minutes, called in her guest. She thought it would be Minato but apparently she was wrong. She still smiled, though. Her best friend came for a visit.

"Hey, there, Kushina." her best friend greeted.

"Karura! What a surprise! When did you get here?" Kushina greeted. She and Karura exchanged kisses on each other's cheeks.

"Last night, but I never expected I'd be visiting on a right time. So…where's the bundle of joy?" Karura searched around the room and saw the crib.

"Actually, the correct saying was _bundles_ of joy." Kushina corrected, keeping a straight face before seeing Karura's dumbfounded face.

"Twins?!"

"Yes!" Kushina giggled.

"They look different. You're one lucky woman, you know. To have two heirs of your and Minato's clan at once. I have to wait another year to get a real heir and I don't think Kankurou suited to be a Kazekage. He's too free-spirited to be a Kazekage." Karura huffed.

"Well, Temari can be the next Kazekage, can't she?"

"Umm…I'm not sure…my children are just the same!"

Kushina giggled and Karura followed. Karura turned to her best friend's children and stroked the red-head one's on the hair softly. "So…what're their names?"

"The blonde that looks like Minato is Naruto. The one you're touching is Gaara."

Karura stared at Kushina skeptically, "A food name and a goth name?"

Kushina shrugged before grinning goofily, "Well…what can I say?"

Karura chuckled as she shook her head. "No wonder you two get along too well. You both had weird taste in names and food! Well, I'll see you tomorrow, Kushina. Have a rest."

"I have." Kushina replied but what came from Karura was laughter. Karura's laughter soon was unheard anymore. She gazed the reddening sky, at the yellow clouds that reflected the setting sun. The sky got redder and redder until it carved a notch in her feeling.

**|O|**

"Hokage-sama!" an ANBU reported, appearing in front of him without turning the door knob. Minato set his head up, facing the badger-masked ANBU. This was not Kakashi, so he assumed that it was a pretty serious matter. He was correct about that.

"This is urgent, sir! There's an attack! From a monster! From _Kyuubi_!"

_That_ he didn't expect. He would not be so surprise if it was another village squadron but a _monster?!_ That hardly happened anymore ever since the beginning of Konohagakure history. Minato stood jolt upright, nodding to the badger ANBU. "We're going right now!"

Minato dashed to the scroll room, grabbing all the scrolls he would need to defeat a 30-foot-high fox. He also grabbed the special kunai that would help him teleport from one place to another. Once he was ready, he and a number of ANBUs dashed to the place where the Kyuubi No Youko had just started to attack. He gritted his teeth resentfully, _Damn, just when my life was started to get better._Blood dripping, bodies falling, waves of ninjas kept on rolling, medics frantically ran here and there. The Kyuubi was unimaginably powerful. Minato lost half of his men—no, more than a half. He was getting frustrated; this fight was million times harder than defeating one million ninja squadron in one swipe. Fighting the Kyuubi was like fighting the whole unity of planets.

* * *

Minato coughed; he himself was dripping with blood. He leaned to a broken tree before he continued clashing claws and knives with the beast. That was when he heard a baritone laugh resonating from somewhere beside him. "Who's that!?" he spat.

'Don't be so rude to me, young man." said the voice. Minato swished his head to all directions, searching for the source of the voice. The source appeared by himself behind him. It was a man in long black hair and with a mask with one eye hole.

Minato's eyes bulged, "Wh-who are you?"

"An exile. Everybody thought I'm dead, yet here I am. Standing still and young. I'm the one who summoned the beast to attack your village. At first he rebelled, but after a laborious bribery, he did his job gladly. Now…don't you have a beast to defeat, Minato-san?"

"How did you know my name?"

"Oh, I know everything." The man stared deeply at him, so deeply that Minato could see a flash of red coming from the eye hole.

Minato whipped his head away, disbelief in his shining blue eyes. Red eyes…that couldn't be…. Minato whipped his head back to the man again, but he was no longer there. It was like he was never there before. But Minato had no time to look for the man; the Kyuubi had gone too far. He was heading to the middle of the village.

"NO!" he exclaimed.

|O|

Kushina threw the blanket that had been warming her legs away. She winced; the pain from giving birth had not faded yet. But she gave no damn to the pain; all she had to do was to go to the crib where Naruto and Gaara were. The giant nine-tailed fox's roar awakened Naruto and Gaara. They wailed and Kushina rushed to their side, holding them securely. Still holding her dear babies, she made a couple of hand seals. "_Sakyuu No Tate!*****_" she said and a ball of sand curled around the infants, protecting them from future head-crushing threats.

She went to the door, to run away, but for some reason the door couldn't be opened. Something blocked it from outside. To make things worse, Kushina's legs were much too painful to be used for kicking solid objects like wood.

Fortune Goddess turned to not to be on her side that day. Two of nine Kyuubi's tails smashed aside the Konoha Hospital building. It slashed her room too and she got hit right on her legs. The building crumbled down. She was lucky enough to still be able to see the red sky with a ball of sand in her arms.

Tears leaked down from her eyes. One of them was bleeding. She let the sand ball rolled around to her side, relieving her chest from six kilos weight. She was pretty sure her legs had become a pair of uncooked bacons.

It was then she saw the golden eagle of her heart landed just beside her and little drops of rain wet her face.

**|O|**

"Kushina! Kushina, please! Please hang on!" Minato looked his surroundings, hoping there would be one or two people to help him get Kushina out of the debris.

Before Minato stood and go get help, Kushina pulled affront the last fragments of her energy to pull Minato's collar and brought him to a weak kiss. Weak it may be, but the strength of their hearts endured it for nearly forever. Kushina could taste the tears of her husband dripping from his nose to her mouth and Minato could taste the blood drooling from Kushina's injured eye and forehead.

"Make me proud, Minato…" Kushina whispered and the energy expired. Her arms flailed lifelessly to her side. Her eyes grabbed a shut and her soul escaped from the cruel real world.

Frustration, sorrow, depression, despair and grief all mixed into one emotion much more powerful than sadness. No, it was beyond that, and Minato had no place big enough to reservoir them. The only thing he had to do was to let them overflow. Hence, he burst into tears—more tears than before. He held her close to his arms, crying to her ever-growing-cold shoulder. He called her name million times, but he knew calling her name would never make her soul to turn around and come back to him.

The sand ball dissolved, showing the wailing Naruto and Gaara. Those cry were not only because they were afraid and that their sleep was disturbed, but Naruto and Gaara were mourning over their mother's death too.

Minato lifted his head to see his boys. Gently he lay Kushina's body on the ground. He stood awkwardly, swaying slightly, and knelt again to scoop up his children. With his light speed running, Minato dashed through the village to the Hokage rocks. He put them down under a shady tree. He turned around, bit his thumb, and stamped the brown soil with his blood. "_Kuchiyose No Jutsu!_"

Smoke puffed; it distracted the giant fox. The demon sniffed the air and growled. Its upper lip curled backwards to show his horrendous fangs. A giant frog stood before him. The frog smoked through a pipe and a sword sling around his back.

"Bah! What the hell is that rodent doing out here?!" Gamabunta whined.

"There's no time for complaining, Bunta. This is serious." Minato said darkly.

"What do you have in mind, kid?"

"Buy me some time. There's something heavier need to be done." Minato turned to his son, Naruto with eyes wet.

"Dude, seriously, what is it you have in mind? I don't like the sound of it." Gamabunta protested.

"Just do it, please!"

"Oh, OK. But I better have a toast for this." Gamabunta pulled his sword and hopped to the Kyuubi, slashing its ears. Kyuubi roared in agony and scratched the frog.

Minato picked up Naruto in his arms, but Gaara remained on where he was. Minato pecked the blonde splitting image of himself on the forehead. He whispered, "Please, Naruto…forgive your father. You can hate me all you want when you're bigger, but know this that I will always love you." Wiping the last track of tear, Minato headed the Kyuubi with new determination. His surrounding soon engulfed by darkness. A hollow creature appeared out of thin air behind him. Naruto once again wailed to its presence.

Minato lifted Naruto under his armpits and held him as low as his stomach. The Kyuubi froze in his place. It howled, hoping the invisible grip would go away. Gamabunta turned to his summoner, "No! You don't actually gonna use that technique, do you?"

"Sorry, Gamabunta, but I do. It's nice to work with you. You may go now, thanks again."

"Damn it, kid. You're an idiot. Even so…I had to praise your courage. May your sons inherit that, Minato." And with that, Gamabunta disappeared.

Minato smiled but as soon as Gamabunta vanished, Minato grew serious again. "Shinigami…" he called to the ghost behind him. "Seal the beast inside my son's body."

Without moving his mouth, Shinigami replied in his ghastly voice, "You do aware this will cost him his life. He's just an infant."

"Then use my life force to make him live. Isn't that possible, eh, Shinigami?" Minato obliged.

The Shinigami seemed pleased and thrust his hand slowly into Minato's stomach then Naruto's. The baby's cry grew louder and louder due to the pain. Equaling the baby's cry, Kyuubi howled and growled, begging to stop. But Shinigami was the most merciless god in the god realm. If one's time has come, one has to die, immediately.

Many thoughts of many emotions surged through Minato's mind as his visions blurring due to the pain. Will Kushina be proud of his action? How about Gaara? Will Naruto be alright after this? How about the people? Who's going to replace his Hokage seat? Who is that man in the mask that talked to him a few minutes ago? Was he really _THAT _powerful to be able to summon the Kyuubi?

Those musings disappeared in zap as Shinigami had sealed the demon fox inside Naruto. Minato could feel the infant's skin chilling before it warmed up again and instead his skin chilled. He fell backwards, resting to the tree where Gaara resided beside him. He held Naruto normally as his life force gradually moved to the blonde infant. He sighed, gazing at the sky. There were so many things he wanted to say all of a sudden. To his children, to his friends, to his seniors, to his teacher, to his wife…but he knew he had no time for that. His eyes closing…

"Minato!"

His eyes snapped open slightly. A woman's voice called him just now. _Kushina?_

"Minato!" called the woman's voice again. She knelt beside him and tried to stare at him. Oh, it was Karura…

"Ka…Karura…" he called weakly.

"Yes, Minato. It's me. What's going on? Why are the babies here?"

"Karura…" Minato called again. Karura stopped asking and listened to Minato's last words. "Take care…of Gaara…" he breathed.

"What?"

"The Kyuubi…is trapped inside Naruto's body. I'm afraid…he might hurt Gaara in the future if his powers…are still unstable. I want you, our best friend, to take care of Gaara. Bring him to…Suna…treat him…like your own son. Gaara…owns his mother's…blood." Minato coughed, blood accidentally stained Naruto's face that started to have thin line on his face, resembling a fox's whiskers. He stroked the soft red hair of Gaara, smiling weakly.

Karura picked up Gaara and rocked him. "How about Naruto?"

"He…remains here. Sandaime Hokage will come and take care of him." Minato heaved, the shine in his blue eyes gloomed, making his eyes looked grey instead of blue. He called Karura again, "When he's bigger…Gaara…tell him about his true family. Tell him why I separate him from his brother…tell him how much his parents love him. He may stay in Suna…or come back to Konoha to live with his brother."

Karura nodded. Her sand-colored skin was soaked with running tears. She accepted Minato's request, making the Hokage pull his last smile. His blue eyes were no longer blue. They were now black. Sobbing, Karura put her hand on top of his eyelids, forcing them to gently close. The husband met the same fate as the wife and they were together again.

**|O|**

The Fourth Kazekage may be said unhappy with his wife's 'little present' from Konoha for the little present was a baby that did not come from her womb. However, Karura insisted on taking care of this baby and even threatened the Kazekage that she will leave the village if he refused. Since the Kazekage loved his wife, he let her keep the baby.

Unfortunately, as we know it from the original storyline, on January 19 Sunagakure's fate was not so far different from Konohagakure as a giant monster called Ichibi No Shukaku attacked. Only this time, although with the same seal, it wasn't sealed inside the Kage's child. Out of selfishness, the Fourth Kazekage took Gaara from Karura's arms and used him as the body to seal the Shukaku. Karura was obviously outraged of his husband's misbehavior.

Karura, a kind and loyal soul was she, told Chiyo the elder to replace Gaara's life with her. Even though it only had been three months, but Karura had grown a strong love for Gaara. Maybe because Gaara came from the womb of her childhood friend. Despite that the Fourth Kazekage didn't want her to sacrifice her life, she did it anyway.

However, Karura left behind a strong feeling of guilt. She felt guilty for leaving Gaara to her ardent husband. She felt guilty for not be able to tell Gaara the truth. She felt guilty to see Gaara suffer in the future. She blamed herself for not being able to become a good godmother. All she wanted was to say sorry.

Now the truth will never be told. Nobody else knows the truth except Minato, Kushina, and Karura. No other people knew that Gaara was adopted by Kushina's childhood friend. Not even Kakashi; not even Sandaime Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi; not even Jiraiya; not even everybody. Naruto will never know that the boy he fought with was his twin brother. Gaara will never know that the boy he owed his life to was his twin brother.

And until today, the truth will never unfold. But maybe, just maybe…the man in the mask knows all. He did say he knew everything, didn't he?

Even so, the bond of twins kept them together. So tight, that Naruto could smell Gaara was in danger in leagues away. They even have a similar goal, and they have the same determination. Minato and Kushina should be grateful. And they do.

* * *

***) _Sakyuu No Tate_ means 'Sand dune shield'.**

**Wow, it's been a LONG time since I last wrote a serious story like this. Again, I must thank Alda MN for the remarkable and inspiring review. Gosh, this story is so sad.... And I do think that Gaara's father, the Fourth Kazekage, is kind of a jerk. I mean, he sent Yashamaru to kill Gaara, which means he wants Gaara dead!  
So here, Gaara's birthday (January 19) is actually the day when Shukaku attacks. His real one is the same as Naruto's. OMG...I just love twins! I wish I had triplets after I get married! And the man in the mask...anybody know who it is? Click the review button and tell me.**

**Hope you enjoy this! And say with me: "STORYLINE TWIST ROCKS!"**


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